Thirteen
by xXAshfeatherXx
Summary: Mac and Stella are thirteen and best friends forever. Partners, almost. When seventh grade seems to break up their friendship, they might become closer than ever... SMACked AU Rated T just in case.
1. The First Chapter

**Title: **Thirteen

**Description: **Mac and Stella are thirteen and best friends forever. Partners, almost. When seventh grade seems to break up their friendship, they might become closer than ever...

**Disclaimer: **I do not own CSI: NY or any of the characters. Rightful owners, I give you kudos and credit.

**A/N: **I got this idea when drawing. I'm still learning proper anatomy for human kind, and I drew Mac and Stella back to back. And they looked like they were 12 or 13. If you want to see it, it's actually the cover for Twin Size, a one shot I made. So please don't yell at me that I copied you. I tried to get the timeline right for their history. This will include cameos of the whole team, some might be teachers but most will be 13 and in 7th grade with Mac and Stell. Also, when I typed this it did indent at the start of every paragraph and when a new person spoke, I'm not sure if it'll show up. Oh yeah, just for the record I am NOT a Jo Danville fan, as you might be able to tell...

THE FIRST CHAPTER

Stella Bonasera drew a little heart on the side of her paper. She was bored out of her mind, and she couldn't wait to get out of English class. She could speak proper English, as she should be able to for a girl that's thirteen years old, or at least that's what she thought. Mrs. Danville was snapping through a slide presentation about how to use pronouns.

"Ms. Bonasera." Jo Danville, the English teacher barked out her name. Stella picked up her head, curls bouncing onto her shoulders and she set down her pencil. "Can you give me an example of a pronoun?" Stella breathed in before speaking.

"I…Me, you, he…them." She said in a slightly quieter voice than normal. Her green eyes darted around the room until she saw Mac Taylor, her best friend. He smiled and nodded, he was taking notes. He always took notes in every subject. He said it was because if he failed a test he could always show his mom that he took notes and tried his best. Stella didn't really care because if she failed a test, her foster mom wouldn't care.

Mrs. Danville didn't say anything back to Stella, just moved on in the boring slide presentation. She never put pictures in, just black and white graphs. Stella fixed her dark maroon shirt. It had a deep V-neck, so she was wearing a creamy white tank top under it. She started back in on drawing a smaller heart at the top margin on her paper, writing in 'SB + SH.' Sheldon Hawkes was another boy in seventh grade. She had a crush on him, but didn't dare to tell Mac because knowing Mac; he would start blushing and get awkward like he always did. She figured that was the downside of having a male best friend. The other downsides included other girls making fun of her and the younger foster children figured that they were dating. Which, Stella Bonasera was strictly best friends with Mac Taylor. She refused to be any more or any less. She did however make the second bullet point on her paper, the list of notes as follows:

**We** are just friends

**I** love **you**

She looked up at the presentation. If she was really in need to study for a test, she could always borrow Mac's notes. Really, she knew she would lose this paper as she did with all her notes. Secretly, she thought Mrs. Danville stole them. For some unknown reason, Mrs. Danville despised Stella. But really, Stella knew deep down that Mrs. Danville wouldn't steal her notes. Maybe the weird kid that sat next to her, Frankie Mala. He always tried to talk to her, but she never knew he was speaking. Of course, Mac never let her hear the end of t. But that was fine by her, as long as he didn't know that she liked Sheldon Hawkes. He was in her fourth period science class. He was the kid genius, as everyone called him. He wasn't as notorious as the Adam kid; Adam Ross would give you all the correct answers for five dollars. Stella never had five dollars for him to do her homework, but she didn't mind doing her own homework. She and Mac would go to the library every other day and do homework together with some of Mac's friends; Jimmie Davis and his younger brother Andrew Davis (they called him Andy.)

Stella was ready to get out of Mrs. Danville's class by the time the bell rang. She grabbed her yellow and blue binder, pink pencil pouch, and green notebook. She squeezed through the rows of desks till she got to the other side of the room where Mac was gathering his stuff, putting his papers neatly into folders and putting his hole punched folders into his binders. She hates how organized he was, but of course a good hate. A jealous hate. She was jealous of Mac Taylor.

"Ready to go to…" Stella trailed off as she tried to remember her own schedule, which she always forgot.

"Science," Mac chuckled, "honestly Stell, we've been doing the same schedule for four months now." She jokingly pushed him lightly, in which he returned the gesture and together they walked slowly down to Mr. Hammerback's classroom at the end of the hallway lined with classrooms and blue lockers. Kids shoved through, some from seventh grade others from eighth grade. There was only one sixth grade class in the upstairs, and they always got out three minutes early because there was a mere four minute passing period.

Arriving in the classroom, Stella slid her books down onto her desk, which was conveniently in the second to back row. She sat next to the one and only Danny Messer. To her, he could be very annoying, but he grew on you. Lindsay Monroe hated his guts currently, as she recalled last time she and the other student spoke. They dated for a few weeks before they broke up. Like every other middle school female, she now hates Danny. Stella didn't really care much for drama, but she did enjoy talking with Lindsay. If Mac wasn't her best friend, she figured Lindsay probably would. Above all, her favorite thing in science was that Sheldon Hawkes sat right in front of her. She always blushed when he passed back papers or asked her a question, and she figured he must think she's a complete imbecile. However, she was one of the brighter students in the class. Science was one of her specialties. She aced all her tests and stayed up late for a whole week memorizing the Periodic Table of Elements. When Sheldon walked in she smiled and managed to get out a hello to him as he sat down. She was confident today. She was going to talk to him before class started. Stella swallowed and was about to speak until Danny Messer plopped down in the seat next to her, letting his books drop onto his desk. He was her desk mate, unfortunately.

"Hey Stell." He smiled, his charming Brooklyn accent always made her smile, but today it didn't. She was about to talk to Sheldon when she was feeling brave. Now she felt too chicken.

"Hey Danny…" she muttered, setting her head in his propped up hand. She looked up at Mac through green eyes; he was four rows in front and one to the left from her. Thankfully he was looking at her, and so he stood up and walked over to talk to her before Mr. Hammerback entered the room.

"What's wrong Stella?" he asked, sitting on his knees, his chin on the edge of her desk. She smiled, she couldn't help it.

"Nothing," she shrugged, "I just can't wait for class to start." She lied. He gave a half smile, looking down. He took her pencil from her hand and started writing in her notebook on a clean paper.

_What's wrong?_

She looked at it. His handwriting was so familiar to her; she could read its sloppiness any day.

_I'm okay._

Mac spun the notebook around and looked up at her doubtfully.

_Don't worry I'll find out._

He walked back to his seat and sat down just as the bell rang, and on cue Mr. Hammerback walked into the room. Even though Stella knew well that Mac would never figure it out, she still feared when he did. Friends weren't supposed to keep secrets. She could see Adam at the front of the room, scribbling down notes like it was his job. Stella let out a heavy sigh and began writing down what was on the board, as they did for the first five minutes every day of science class before they went into their high functioning lesson. Mr. Hammerback was really open and creative, always with a hands-on project to do for the glory of science.

"Today's lesson…" Mr. Hammerback stood up, walking over to the white board. "Anatomy!" he wrote in red. Fourty-two minutes to teach a full lesson were his signature thing to do. "Get out a paper, I wanna see notes." He clipped his glasses together over the bridge of his nose. "First we'll start with your insides. And where better than the digestive tract?" he smiled and began going through a shortened lesson of digestive tract, every day for the rest of the week they would go over the systems in depth. 'Mouth, Throat, Esophagus, Stomach, small-intestine, large-intestine' Stella wrote in her notes. This was the one class she actually took notes in, the one class she definitely didn't need to take notes in.

"Hey Stella." She heard a whisper and she looked up. Sheldon Hawkes was talking to her. She looked up, flushed of color.

"Yeah?" she whispered back, eyes wide.

"Do you have an extra pencil?" she nodded again, pulling out her pencil pouch. She took out one of her favorite pencils; it was all black and had one of those fancy good erasers. She didn't get the best pencils and school supplies; living in a foster home does that to you. He smiled and nodded, his chocolate eyes seeming to melt her. "Hey, thanks. Mac's your friend, right?" he whispered, and Stella nodded numbly. At least he didn't think Mac was her boyfriend. "He's pretty cool." He turned around and began taking notes. Stella choked up. She couldn't think. She just started in a frantic flurry of writing whatever was on the board. The curly-haired student finally stopped in her scramble for words as she felt a jab in her ribs. She looked over. Danny. She glared and looked over at him, her cheeks were still hot.

"You're still friends with Montan—err—Lindsay, right?" Stella shrugged.

"Yeah, what does it matter?" she asked, the eraser of her pencil touching the bottom of her lips.

"Does she really hate me?" he squinted, half smiling and his eyebrows rose as if he were trying to understand the unexplainable.

"She says she does…" Stella mumbled, not really knowing herself. "I guess she's probably lying." She went back to writing notes, Danny smiling this time.

By the time the bell rang, Stella was more bored than she usually got in Science. She met up with Mac as she usually did. "Lunch!" Stella said half excited.

You never really knew what you were going to get on your tray, and usually Stella didn't get a tray because she didn't have any money. The reason was always the same—Christine Whitney. She was on almost every single school team that included physical capabilities because, as Stella liked to think, Christine lacked intellectual capabilities. And the worst part was Christine could afford her own lunch. She just liked to get extra À la _carte i_tems. Which, Stella didn't mind, she just ate the other half of Mac's daily peanut butter and jelly sandwich because every day he offered it. Mac's mom always packed a homemade PBJ everyday in his lunchbox.

She made her way downstairs to the first floor, walking the familiar hallways with Mac at her side.

"So Stella today afterschool are you coming with me and Jimmie—"

"Jimmie and I." Stella corrected.

"Yeah, are you coming with Jimmie and I to the library?" Stella shrugged as she reached her locker, locker number 212. Mac's locker was a few lockers down, 216. The few lockers in between them were already gone to lunch so she could see him without anyone blocking the way. She twisted the lock till she had scrolled through the correct numbers, 23-36-13.

"I don't think so." Stella put her books at the bottom of her locker.

"Why not? You always come." He narrowed his eyes like she was doing something wrong as he put his books in his own locker, grabbing his dark blue lunchbox. Stella, in turn grabbed her $2.50, the exact amount to buy a lunch.

"I'm going somewhere else…" she mumbled walking towards Mac. He said something inaudible under his breath, but they continued on to the lunchroom talking to each other and laughing, as the hallways were almost completely empty. That was when she heard some harsh talking. "What's that?" she turned her head, curls bouncing on her shoulders. Turning the corner quickly with Mac following, she approached a group of boys, pushing around the one Adam Ross.

The group consisted of George Kolovos, DJ Pratt, and Sonny Sassone.

"Hey, Ross! Can you do my homework for free?" Sonny jeered.

"You're such a dork. Nobody cares about doing their homework except you!" DJ laughed shoving Adam to the ground.

"Hey! Stop it!" Stella shouted, running toward them. George walked up to her. He was a good few inches taller, so he looked down on her.

"Whattcha gonna do curly fry?" he whispered, an eyebrow rose.

"Does it matter?" she crossed her arms, glaring at him with piercing green eyes.

"Oi, little girl you should go away, you wouldn't understand what's happening!" Sonny growled in his New York accent.

"Yes I do you're being a douche bag! Leave him alone!" she snapped. Kolovos rolled his eyes and began to advance on her in an attempt to push her away. That was when Stella drew her first back, punching him in the nose.

"Oh my god, Stella!" Mac yelped, rushing over to help the boy, who held his hand to his nose, dramatically falling to the ground. George pushed Mac away, scrambling to his feet. He held his hand to his nose, blood dribbled down onto his grubby fingers.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Bonasera?" he growled, glaring. Stella's eyes widened for a moment before shaking off the feeling. "Let's get out of here…" he turned and walked down the hallway with his friends following. Stella skidded down to the ground to where Adam was half sitting.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking him over. He shrugged, looking into her eyes. He began to stutter out something as Mac got closer to look over the bullied child.

"Y-Ye Uhm Eh Yeah? I think?" he looked at Mac, who hadn't the slightest idea of what was bothering the smaller kid.

"Well let's head to lunch then." Stella helped him to his feet, leaning against Mac's shoulder and talking as they shuffled down the hallway to the lunchroom doors, where yelling, loud talking, and laughs could be heard from the children inside.

**A/N: **Hey! Thanks for reading this far… I know it gets really boring (or at least I thought it was pretty boring) at that part in the middle. Also, sorry it's short... The next chapter will probably be following Mac rather than Stella and hopefully longer. They are both around twelve or thirteen. I do not ship StellaXHawkes, but I thought it would be interesting for her to have a crush on him, don't worry she will realize how amazing Mac is. And yes, twelve-year-olds do curse, so please excuse the rude little Kolovos. I tried to incorporate some of the bad guys from CSI NY. And don't worry; DJ Pratt won't be sexually harassing anybody. He's twelve. Seriously, I'm not that dysfunctional. There most likely won't be ANY murdering due to the fact that's a bit messed up and half the children would probably be scarred for life. However, I've got a pretty good idea for a later chapter. Which should happen:

School lockdown due to a school shooting (I'm not too sure about this one)

Earthquake or fire, one of those things that school always makes you do practice drills for.

Other + your idea (I'll give you credit if I choose it .3.)

I'm going for something dramatic, something that won't leave everyone traumatized but it can happen in a school in New York like this one. This school, though I didn't really go into much detail, is a bit old… it's not in the BEST neighborhood, there are the preppy kids, kids who think they be livin' da thug lyfe, smart kids, etc. This AN is getting pretty long, so ya know the drill: reviews are lovely. Please tell me what you think!


	2. The Second Chapter

**TITLE:** Thirteen

**DISCLAIMER**: Blah blah blah, I don't own, you get the point, right?

**DESCRIPTION**: I hope you know what this book is about by now

**A/N: **Okeeey so I'm pumped and ready to right this new chapter! I just finished the cover, so I'm BURSTING with ideas. Not really. But kinda; I've figured out what I'm going to do with this chapter (hopefully it's long enough…) OH yeah, this book probably will be only 4-10 chapters I'll try to make it as long as I can. I might consider a sequel, but I really don't see what else there is to say. They'd be about 14 in the second book and 14 has its limits… (yes I do intend on keeping this T rated and the DEFINITELY will keep their V cards) So second book might not happen, but I might revisit the idea once I actually FINISH this. AND I'M ONLY ON CHAPTER TWO.

**THE SECOND CHAPTER**

Mac walked down the sidewalk towards the library after school. Usually Stella would be at his side, chatting about something that had happened in a class that she had that he didn't. Though, out of the eight class periods in a day they were in the same class for six of them. He had chosen khaki shorts for today's apparel, and now he regretted it as the November wind chilled him. Mac shivered but continued thinking about Stella. Why didn't she want to come? She always came even if she didn't have homework. And something was wrong with her, too. He noted, stepping over the one panel of sidewalk that was broken and crumbled for some unknown reason.

He knew that Jimmie and Jimmie's little brother Andy would be there early, they always went straight to the library rather than stop and talk like Mac. At that moment he knew exactly what he had to do. He had to talk to Jimmie about it. Jimmie always knew what to do. It was a good half mile walk from the school to the library, but it warmed him up enough against the cold air. As he entered, he was welcomed by the warmth of the library. The local library was a fairly new building, the walls were stone, and there were little sitting areas for all age groups. He walked back to the teen section. Behind a couple rows of bookcases he walked into the large open area. Beanbags, big soft sitting chairs, tables, and snack machines filled up the area. There were teens from the high school loafing around that had either ditched school, skipped their last class, or got out early. For the most part, middle schoolers were hanging around.

He slipped down into a wood chair at a table, Jimmie sitting across from him. Andy was a fifth grader, and was writing out multiplication problems on his paper. A pack of cheez-its from the snack machine was sitting casually on the dark table; some of the orange crackers were sitting out messily. Jimmie had a German textbook out in from of him, and he looked up at Mac, smiling once he realized who it was.

"Tag, Mac," he murmured, "wie gehst du?" Mac creased his eyebrows, he was taking French instead of German. Jimmie rolled his eyes, "How's it going?" Mac shrugged, pulling out his English homework.

"I'm fine." Mac reached into his backpack, getting a pencil. Andy sheepishly looked up, but went back to working out what twenty-nine multiplied by six was.

"Hey, uhm, where's your girlfriend?" Jimmie joked, smiling.

"Stella is _not_ my girlfriend!" Mac snapped, in which his friend rolled his eyes. Mac couldn't tell if he was blushing or not, but his face felt hot. "She didn't want to come. I think there's something wrong with her, she wouldn't tell me. What should I do?"

"Ask that creep Frankie Mala. He's a freakin' stalker, man." Jimmie laughed before going back to the foreign pages. Mac pressed his lips firmly together, looking around the teen hangout before he found the mess of hair that belonged to Frankie, he was sitting in a green beanbag chair, scrolling through some loose leaf paper in his binder. Most of the papers looked to be notes, but only two or three bullet points were made on each with some doodles on the side. Standing up, Mac slowly approached the kid like he was a wild, rabid animal.

"Hey, Mala…" Mac began, getting Frankie's attention.

"Whaddya need Mac?" Frankie snapped his binder shut.

"I-er—I'm just going to say it…" Mac clicked his teeth together.

"Yeah?" Frankie raised his eyebrows and upper lip, waiting for a reply.

"Do you know what's wrong with Stella?" Mac's face looked like he was wincing from some invisible pain, he assured himself it was because he was talking to the kid who was bound to be a stalker-murderer, Mac was sure of it.

What happened surprised Mac. Without a fuss, Frankie flicked open his binder, pulling out the most recent page to be put in.

"I think this might interest you?" Mac took it and walked back to his seat, all the while Frankie was watching him as he read the paper. It was Stella's notes. Mac had to erase the whole 'this is the kid who has been stealing Stella's notes' thought as he saw all the hearts and Sheldon's name everywhere. Sheldon Hawkes?! Mac took his pencil and scribbled through all the hearts and the name and couldn't help but write:

SHELDON HAWKES IS STUPID.

The irrational actions fueled by rage made Mac stop and realize what he was doing. Jimmie was staring at him, Andy was peeking up. Thankfully, nobody else noticed. Mac also realized how bad he sucked at insults. Stupid? Other kids would bashing said person and calling him names that didn't make sense. And the thing that bothered Mac the most was that he wasn't sure why he was so mad.

"I… I have to go." Mac whispered, packing his stuff in his bag. He could hear Jimmie snicker and could feel Frankie's gaze burning into him. He slung his backpack onto his back and stalked out of the library and out the building. Was Stella seriously with Sheldon Hawkes right now?!

Stella walked down the sidewalk. She had been walking for a bit, she was in a nicer neighborhood, but she knew where she was going. She could make out the building where he taught. Professor Papakota. She entered the building, taking the oak steps two at a time. His classroom was at the end of the hallway. She knocked on the grand looking door, this was the third time she had visited Professor P.

"Papakota? It's me, Stella." She called, opening the door. Desks were aligned in rows, and a chalkboard spanned across the whole front wall. A teacher in his thirties was sitting at his desk in the front of the classroom. He had dark hair and hazely-dark eyes.

He walked over to her, a paper in his hands.

"Get your book out and today I want you to write the alphabet." He said, putting down the paper. In school she was learning Italian, but here she was learning how to read, speak, and write Greek. She whispered the letters as she wrote them down, copying them from a Greek textbook, one that she was borrowing from Papakota.

"Alpha, beta, gamma…" she whispered under her breathe, writing the English equivalent next to it. "Delta, Epsilon?" she looked up at Professor Papakota, who nodded in agreement. She continued on, all the while thinking about if Mac was mad or not about her not going to the library. Stella decided that learning the language from where she came from mattered more. "Zeta, eta, theta.. Mac…" she whispered, not realizing she had said it.

"What? Mac isn't a letter." Papakota said, raising a brow.

Stella looked down at her paper, and cleared her throat.

"Hm? Oh right, iota." She bit her lip then went back to writing and saying the letters aloud. "Kappa, lambda, mu, nu…" she paused to look out the tall window that spanned from the floor to the ceiling and went back to work, gazing up at Papakota occasionally for approval. About twenty minutes of reciting and writing the alphabet to a point where she remembered it, she left.

Walking down the cracked sidewalk of New York, she reached a smaller apartment building smashed between a row of others. Before she could skip up the steps to the doorway, she was interrupted by a boy sitting on her steps.

"Mac, what are you doing here?" she asked, sitting down next to him, slinging her backpack off her shoulder and onto the cement steps. Mac stood up as soon as she sat down, looking down at her.

"I found out why you didn't want to come," he growled. Stella creased her eyebrows.

"Yeah…? Why are you mad? There's nothing wrong with it…" she frowned. Shouldn't he be proud? She's learning two foreign languages at once for crying out loud!

"Nothing wrong-? Stell! You could have told me! I had to find out through Frankie Mala! _FRANKIE MALA_!" he snarled. She stood up, her gaze piercing into him. She was an inch or two taller than him.

"We only meet for a half hour after school! It's no big deal, I'm sorry I missed your stupid library meet!" she turned, curls sweeping behind and she snatched her pale dusky blue bag off the steps. She stomped up the steps, slamming the door behind her, leaving Mac angrily speechless behind.

**A/N:** I'm sorry if this doesn't seem New York-y enough, I don't live in New York. The library is based off of the library that I frequent that is right by my school. And sorry AGAIN for it being REALLY short, but I wasn't sure what else to put. I used to be really good at cliffhangers, but now I kinda suck… *shrug* Review because you want to make me happy, follow if you want to keep up with this hopefully fabulous story.


	3. The Third Chapter

**TITLE:** Thirteen

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own CSI NY or any of the characters they belong to their rightful owners. I'll consider you really awesome if you happen to look like any described character in this story as it is a coincidence (which I don't actually believe in coincidences, but everybody puts that in their disclaimer so yeeeeeah)

**DESCRIPTION: **Mac and Stella are 13. They have 13 year old relationship problems. Etc.

**A/N: **Yeah I get really bored typing that all up ^^ But I like having it different for each story '^-^ Well, anyway, this chapter will be following Stella because she's my favorite and because currently I think Mac is being a douche. Plus I've got…. An idea... So let's see what happens! This chapter will be about the following characters: Stella Bonasera and Lindsay Monroe.

**THE THIRD CHAPTER**

Stella was mad. She marched up the steps to her apartment. The door was unlocked, so she knew someone was home. As she walked in, she could see one of her foster sisters, Camille, almost asleep on the sofa. Camille was a four years older than Stella, and next year Camille would get out of the foster system. Lucky. Still, Cam was always looking out for Stella so she couldn't complain. She went into her room, which she shared with Camille.

The apartment was actually pretty big, it had three rooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen; however all said rooms were a bit smaller. The other room housed her three foster brothers, Mitch, Nate, and Luke. Luke was two, Nate was nine, and Mitch was sixteen. Stella sat on her twin size bed, which was a nightstand away from Cam's bed. Opening the flip phone shared by the sisters, she dialed Lindsay Monroe's number.

She heard the dial tone three times before she heard Lindsay's voice.

"Hello? Lindsay Monroe." She said cheerily. Stella could almost smell nail polish through the phone.

"Hey Linds, its Stella." Stella smiled.

"Oh hi! Do you wanna come over? I'm painting my nails, I just got this really pretty green you should try!" Stella looked out her door, and saw Mitch in his room doing some homework while Luke played with some baby rings.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a half hour or so." Lindsay always knew what to say, and Stella knew that Lindsay could calm her down enough to not stay mad at Mac. Hopefully, that is.

Grabbing her jacket from the corner of her bed, she walked out the apartment, skipping down the steps outside. As long as she was home by five-thirty, which it was only around three o'clock. As she walked outside, she realized Mac had already left. She rolled her eyes, did he even know what he was talking about? She turned on her heal and walked down the sidewalk. She knew how to walk in this part of New York: head high and look like you know where you're going and what you're doing. Otherwise the creeps will seem a lot more creepier. She passed the tall apartment buildings, mostly the paint was chipping off but some of the landlords were deciding to make their buildings look more welcoming.

After a twenty minute walk, Stella had arrived at Lindsay's apartment complex. Her apartment was a lot more modern looking and newer. Her apartment was on the first floor, it had been blessed with a small backyard big enough for a garden. Knocking on the door, it was abruptly answered by Lindsay. She smelled of nail polish and nail polish remover.

"Hey Stella!" Lindsay said cheerfully, "Come in, mom is asleep but she won't hear us." They walked over to Lindsay's bedroom, which Lindsay didn't share with anyone. Lindsay only had a brother named Ben, he was always out with his friends. They went and sat down on the soft white carpet in Lindsay's room. Her walls were painted a light lilac. She had a huge dresser with a mirror going from floor to ceiling and everything was in a modern style, it was something Stella didn't have.

"Mac's being a jerk for no reason." Stella huffed as she picked up the green nail polish. It was bright yet pastel-y green. She opened it up, laying on her stomach now.

"I don't see how your friends with him. He always seems depressed or something." Lindsay picked up a bright pink color that was in the mix of all her bright bottles.

"Well today he wasn't depressed he was mad. I'm learning Greek afterschool at the University where a Professor teaches, I dunno why he's so keen on teaching me Greek." Stella shrugged.

"Your Greek." Lindsay muttered, painting her thumb nail to test the color.

"Yeah… anyway, and Mac just started yelling at me because I went there instead of going to the library."

Lindsay shrugged looking at Stella, a crooked smile.

"Stel, just hang out with Aiden and I." she said. Aiden Burn was one of Lindsay's friends, along with Jessica Angell. Stella thought a moment as she painted her own fingernails the green color. "I think Mac will understand. Besides, your best friend needs to be a girl. Mac doesn't know the difference between a bobby pin and a ponytail." Stella nodded. Lindsay was right. However, she still wasn't sure. She could always teach Mac the difference between a French braid and a Dutch braid. Which, to Stella it didn't really matter because she never braided her hair or put bobby pins in it.

It was four fifty-five when Stell left Lindsay's, as Stella entered her home she hung her coat on the end of her bed. Cam was now in laying on her bed, writing something from an open textbook onto a sheet of paper. A lot of her tension had been resolved by Lindsay, and Stella had been convinced that from that day forward Lindsay was her best friend, not Mac. Plopping down on her bed, Stella pressed the side of her face against her pillow. The phone started the ring. Cam looked over, but Stella got to it before her.

"Hello? Stella Bonasera, who is speaking?" she chirped.

"Hey Stell, It's Mac." Her bright mood dropped and she sat back down on her bed.

"What do _y_ou want." She growled.

"Listen, Stella I'm sorry about earlier but you should have told me."

"It's really not that big of a deal." Stella lied, playing with a curl lazily.

"Really? Great! How about we—"

"I have to go, Mac," Stella blurted out, "Sorry. I gotta go, bye." She hung up before she got a reply, hearing a snort of amusement from Cameille. "What's so funny?"

"I knew at some point your '_best friend'_ was going to end up with a crush on you." She laughed, writing something down on her paper.

"What? Mac doesn't like me!" Stella blushed.

"Whatever." Cam raised her eyebrows but went right back into her homework. Stella bit her lip, still blushing. If Mac liked her, that would make sense for why he was being a jerk, but why? She swallowed, but couldn't stop blushing or thinking about her. It swallowed her up, covering all the anger and replacing it with something warm and something light. She decided she liked this feeling, and she didn't want it to leave.


End file.
